Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Today in History for Aug. 7, 2018

Aug. 7, 1574 – English explorer and cartographer Robert
Dudley was born in Richmond Palace, Surrey.

Aug. 7, 1779 – French explorer Louis de Freycinet was born
in Montélimar,
Drôme.

Aug. 7, 1782 – In Newburgh, N.Y., George Washington,
the commander in chief of the Continental Army, ordered the creation of the
Badge of Military Merit to honor soldiers wounded in battle. It was later
renamed to the more poetic Purple Heart.

Aug. 7, 1789 – The United States Department of War was
established by the U.S. Congress.

Aug. 7, 1813 – General Ferdinand Claiborne, who was
commanding at Mount Vernon, inspected Fort Mims and recommended that at least
two and possibly three additional blockhouses be built, but those orders were
never accomplished.

Aug. 7, 1836 - Confederate General Evander Law was born in
Darlington, S.C. and went on to open a new military school in Tuskegee, Ala.
When the war broke out, Law became a lieutenant colonel in the 4th Ala.
Infantry and he went on to have a distinguished career in the Confederate army,
earning a reputation as a brave and effective field commander. He was the last
surviving Confederate general before his death in 1920.

Aug. 7, 1861 – During the Civil War, a three-day Federal
operation in the communities of Price’s Landing, Commerce, Benton and Hamburg
in Missouri began.

Aug. 7, 1861 - The US War
Department signed a contract with James B. Eads for the construction of seven
iron clad gunboats which would become the main naval force of the Union’s
western river operations, the Cairo, Carondolet, Cincinnati, Louisville, Mound
City, Pittsburg and St. Louis. Unrelated to the Civil War, James Eads was
responsible for conducting the multitude of surveys prior to the war that resulted
in much of the present-day system of levees along the Mississippi River.

Aug. 7, 1862 – During the Civil War, a skirmish occurred
near Moseley’s Plantation, in the vicinity of Decatur, Ala.

Aug. 7, 1862 – During the Civil War, a three-day Federal
reconnaissance from Pensacola to Bagdad and Milton, Fla. began.

Aug. 7, 1862 – During the Civil
War, skirmishes were fought near Montevallo, Ozark, Forsyth and Rocky Bluff in Missouri;
near Fort Fillmore in the New Mexico Territory; at Wood’s Springs, near
Dyersburg, Tenn.; and at Wolftown, Va., four miles south of Thoroughfare
Mountain.

Aug. 7, 1863 – During the Civil
War, skirmishes were fought near New Madrid, Mo. and at Burke’s Station, Va.

Aug. 7, 1864 – During the Civil War, in direct disobedience
to his orders, the Confederate commander of Fort Gaines, on Dauphin Island,
Ala., Colonel Charles D. Anderson, spent this day arranging terms and making
out rolls of men to be surrendered to Admiral Farragut and General Granger. A
number of the surrendered personnel spent the rest of the war a relatively
short distance away on Ship Island, Miss. Others were not so fortunate.

Aug. 7, 1864 – During the Civil
War, skirmishes were fought at Hickory Plains and Bull Bayou in Arkansas; along
the Tallahatchie River, in Mississippi; at Enterprise, Arrow Rock, Huntsville,
and another along Buffalo Creek, in Missouri; in Union County, Tenn.; and at
Oldfields, near Moorefield, in West Virginia.

Aug. 7, 1864 – During the Civil
War, what would prove to the be final Shenandoah Valley Campaign began in
Virginia.

Aug. 7, 1882 - Isaac “Honest Ike” Vincent was elected to an
unprecedented third term as Alabama State Treasurer. Thanking the Democratic
Convention that had nominated him two months earlier, Vincent promised that he
would “endeavor in the future, as I have in the past, to guard and advance your
interests as faithfully as I would my own.” On Jan. 31, 1883, Gov. Edward A.
O’Neal reported to the Legislature that Treasurer Vincent had absconded from
office and that state funds totaling more than $200,000 were missing.

Aug. 7, 1895 – An armed posse was raised in Monroeville,
Ala. to hunt for “Railroad Bill” after two children of Chas. Busey reported saw
the famous desperado a mile or two south of Monroeville. The children were
returning home from an errand when they came upon “Bill” who was lying in the
shade beneath a tree near a path leading through a dense wood with his rifle
beside him. When the children appeared, he jumped to his feet and fled, leaving
a piece of his clothing on the group. The children hurried home, told their
father, who came to Monroeville and “gave the alarm.” The posse searched the
woods without finding “Bill” and eventually returned to Monroeville.

Aug. 7, 1896 – The Monroe Journal reported that the
temperature “hovered in the neighborhood of 100 degrees in the shade” for
several days during the previous week.

Aug. 7-9, 1906 - The annual session of the Monroe County Masonic Conference was held at Tunnel City
Lodge in Tunnel Springs, Ala. All lodges in the county were urged to send full
delegations. R.E. Barnes of Monroeville was Secretary. J.R. Montgomery of
Eliska, Dr. T.M. McMillan, O.O. Bayley, T.S. Wiggins, I.B. Slaughter, J.M.
Sowell and Q. Salter were among those who attended.

Aug. 7, 1907 - Senator pitcher Walter Johnson won his first
Major League Baseball game by defeating the Indians, 7-2.

Aug. 7, 1912 - Theodore Roosevelt,
the former U.S. president, was nominated for the presidency by the Progressive
Party, a group of Republicans dissatisfied with the renomination of President
William Howard Taft. Also known as the Bull Moose Party, the Progressive
platform called for the direct election of U.S. senators, woman suffrage,
reduction of the tariff, and many social reforms. In November, Roosevelt was
defeated by Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson, who benefited from the divided
Republican Party.

Aug. 7, 1914 – In the first of a three-game series,
Brewton’s baseball team beat Monroeville, 9-3, in Monroeville, Ala.

Aug. 7, 1914 - At five o’clock in the morning, French troops
launched their first attack of World War I, advancing towards the city of
Mulhouse, located near the Swiss border in Alsace, a former French province
lost to Germany in the settlement ending the Franco-Prussian War in 1871.

Aug. 7, 1915 – Monroe County Sheriff’s Deputy Ralph Clark
was shot through the right lung while attempting to arrest a man who was wanted
for a minor offense at the Alger-Sullivan headquarters camp on this Saturday
night. Clark returned fire and mortally wounded the shooter, who was then strung
up by a mob and riddled with bullets. Clark was taken to Century for medical
attention.

Aug. 7-8, 1915 – A series of baseball games was scheduled to
be played at Herbert, Ala. between teams from Herbert and Mason. A public
picnic was scheduled for Aug. 8 with two games to follow that afternoon.

Aug. 7, 1916 – County Court was in session in Evergreen on
this Monday.

Aug. 7, 1918 – During World War I, U.S. Army 2nd Lt. Claud
Mortimer McCall, 25, of Brewton, Ala. was killed in action while serving in Co.
C of the 38th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division at
the Second Battle of the Marne Vesle River in France. He was buried in the Oise-Aisne
American Cemetery and Memorial, Fere-en-Tardenois, Departement de l'Aisne, in
Picardie, France. Born in 1893, he also has a grave marker at Fort Crawford
Cemetery in East Brewton.

Aug. 7, 1930 – The last confirmed lynching of blacks in the
Northern United States occurred in Marion, Indiana. Two men, Thomas Shipp and
Abram Smith, were killed.

Aug. 7, 1933 – In what is now known as the “Simele
Massacre,” the Iraqi government slaughtered over 3,000 Assyrians in the village
of Simele. The day became known as Assyrian Martyrs Day.

Aug. 7, 1945 – The USS Eldridge arrived at Okinawa for local
escort and patrol, and with the end of hostilities a week later, continued to
serve as escort on the Saipan–Ulithi–Okinawa routes until November.

Aug. 7, 1946 - Lt. Gen. Holland "Howlin' Mad"
Smith retired from the Marines after a 40-year career. A veteran of World Wars
I and II, the Russell County, Ala. native became known as "the father of
amphibious warfare," and was honored for his years of service by being
retired as a full general.

Aug. 7, 1947 - Kon-Tiki, a balsa wood raft captained by
Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl, completes a 4,300-mile, 101-day
journey from Peru to Raroia in the Tuamotu Archipelago, near Tahiti. On this
day, the raft smashed into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after its
journey across the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to prove that pre-historic
peoples could have traveled from South America.

Aug. 7, 1953 – City Furniture Co. in Evergreen, Ala. held
its grand opening in the location formerly occupied by the Olen Department
Store in the Binion Building on West Front Street.

Aug. 7, 1953 – Essayist and journalist Anne Fadiman was born
in New York City.

Aug. 7, 1954 – The Evergreen Chamber of Commerce planned to
auction off the first bale of cotton of the 1954 season in Evergreen’s “No
Man’s Land” around 1 p.m. on this Saturday. The first bale was ginned at the
Evergreen Gin by Castleberry farmer J.W. Reeves.

Aug. 7, 1958 - Emilia Newcomb, age 22, spontaneously
combusted while dancing at a party. She was reduced to a small pile of ash
after a brief, intense flare, with only her shoes, slightly scorched,
remaining.

Aug. 7, 1959
– The Lincoln Memorial design on the U.S. penny went into circulation. It
replaced the "sheaves of wheat" design, and was minted until 2008.

Aug. 7, 1959
– As part of the Explorer program, Explorer
6 launched from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Aug. 7, 1960 - David Duchovny, who played FBI Agent on “The
X-Files,” was born in New York City.

Aug. 7, 1964
– During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin
Resolution, giving U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson broad war powers to deal
with North Vietnamese attacks on American forces.

Aug. 7, 1965 - Miss Dorothy Robinson was congratulated by
Conecuh County Farm Bureau President William Ward after being named Conecuh’s
1965 Maid of Cotton. Results of the contest, in which former National Maid of
Cotton Katy Sue Meredith of Andalusia was a judge, was announced at the annual
meeting of the Farm Bureau at the Courthouse on this Saturday morning.

Aug. 7, 1967 - The North Vietnamese
newspaper Nhan Dan reported
that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) had signed a new agreement to give
Hanoi an undisclosed amount of aid in the form of an outright grant.

Aug. 7, 1968 - In his Major League Baseball debut, Joe
Keough of the A's hit a home run in his first at-bat.

Aug. 7, 1969 – Alabama Gov. Albert Brewer named Evergreen
Mayor Wm. H. Sessions to the Region Six Planning Board for Law Enforcement. The
board was one of seven established throughout the state by Brewer to assist in
implementing the Crime Control and Safe Streets Act in Alabama.

Aug. 7, 1969 - Johnny Middleton, a native of Evergreen,
announced the opening of his accountant and tax consultant office in the office
space in the Jr. Food Store building in Evergreen, Ala.

Aug. 7, 1969 – The Evergreen Quarterback Club was scheduled
to meet at 7:30 p.m. at Evergreen City Hall.

Aug. 7, 1974 – The Seaboard Coastline Depot in Enterprise,
in Coffee County, Ala, was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Aug. 7, 1974 – French stuntman Philippe Petit performed a
high wire act between the twin towers of the World Trade Center - 1,368 feet in
the air.

Aug. 7, 1976
– NFL punter Shane Lechler was born in East Bernard, Texas. He went on to play
for Texas A&M, the Oakland Raiders and the Houston Texans.

Aug. 7, 1988 – Liz Cochran, who was later named Miss Alabama
2009, was born in Helena, Ala.

Aug. 7, 1988 - Baron Keith Stabler, 22, of Franklin was
killed when his 1987 Chevrolet Cavalier wrecked early on this Sunday, according
to State Trooper Willie Cameron. Stabler was driving north on Alabama Highway
41 at Fountain when he apparently fell asleep around 1 a.m., Cameron said. The
car drifted off the road, hit a culvert and overturned several times.

Aug. 7, 1990 - President George Herbert Walker Bush ordered
the organization of Operation Desert Shield in response to Iraq's invasion of
Kuwait on August 2. The order prepared American troops to become part of an
international coalition in the war against Iraq that would be launched as
Operation Desert Storm in January 1991. To support Operation Desert Shield,
Bush authorized a dramatic increase in U.S. troops and resources in the Persian
Gulf.